Financial Times - Pleasure zone
 
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For me, the loveliest objects are to do with personal associations. This is especially true of an octagonal wooden table, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, given to me by my grandmother 20 years ago before she died. As co-owner - with my wife, Suzanne - of The Rug Company, I've developed an eye for good design and this table is a wonderful example of marquetry work. More importantly, it holds so many memories for me.
My grandmother - a staunch Protestant - married a man with eight children from a previous marriage and had seven children of her own. Eight children became missionaries, who sent home a bewildering selection of exotic objects to my grandmother's London home. I was in her house every day as a child and allowed to inspect them with my fingers sticky from eating her sponge cakes. Most of these foreign wonders were displayed in a glass cabinet - minute bibles, elaborate ivory carvings no larger than golf balls, silver spoons and tiny hand-painted fans. The exception to these caged delights was this Syrian table, whose sparkling mother-of-pearl inlay fired my imagination with its Eastern promise and tales of travel.
My grandmother was a fabulous woman and adored by her children. Like the kitchen range, everyone gravitated towards her. The pleasure this table gives me now no longer involves an Arabian Nights fantasy but evocative memories of her.
